Editor of Pro-Israeli Iraqi Magazine Goes Missing

Mawlud Afand, editor of a magazine that advocates relations between Kurdistan and Israel, has been missing for more than ten days.

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Elad Benari, 21/06/12 03:13

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Reuters

An Iraqi Kurdish editor of a magazine that advocates relations between Kurdistan and Israel has been missing for more than ten days, AFP reported on Wednesday.

The man, Mawlud Afand, is the editor-in-chief of the Israel-Kurd Institute's magazine and has been missing since June 8, said Diyari Mohammed, a correspondent for the magazine.

The media watchdog Reporters Without Borders expressed concern about Afand, saying in a statement quoted by AFP, “We fear the worst and we urge the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government's authorities to do everything possible to find Afand.”

Mohammed told AFP that Afand “went alone for an appointment... and disappeared” during a visit to Sulaimaniyah.

“He called in the afternoon the next day and told us that he was on a private visit and would return back after a week,” said Mohammed.

A woman who spoke Persian answered Afand's phone on June 13, but it has been switched off since then, Mohammed told AFP, adding Afand's colleagues have raised the possibility he was kidnapped by Iranian intelligence.

Mohammed said the president of the Israel-Kurd Institute, Dawood al-Baghistani, had been informed by the Kurdistan region's government last year that Iran wanted the magazine closed, but that Kurdistan declined to do so.